Bitter Together
by afinemess5
Summary: Five time Niles and CC were bitter together on the holidays and one time they weren't.


Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, but I missed them so very much.

[A/N: Happy holidays to all of my readers, and a special Merry Christmas to Kate. A few of these required a little tinkering with the timeline, especially 1997. I hope you'll overlook.]

Bitter Together

 _Five times Niles and CC were bitter together on the holidays and one time they weren't_

 **1: 1984**

CC Babcock had known Niles for four long years now, and if the irritating butler had one thing going for him, it was that he still surprised her. His insults and pranks weren't predictable to her, not yet.

So when he showed up next to her in the bar decorated with red- and green-string lights on Christmas Eve, she was surprised, to be sure. But then she wasn't.

"What are you doing here?" CC asked haughtily.

"Ordering a drink," he responded before he requested a whiskey from the bartender. He settled on the barstool next to her, infuriatingly refusing to make eye contact with her.

"Isn't this neighborhood a little out of your price range?" Some habits haven't been fully established yet, but CC had long since learned how to keep a conversation with him going.

"Absolutely," Niles answered with a slight sigh after an impressive gulp of his whiskey. Then he turned to face her in his seat, an inscrutable look in his eyes. "Let's call a truce for this evening. It's Christmas Eve, after all."

She raised her eyebrows then shrugged. "All right. What are you doing here?" she asked again, this time curiously.

Niles glanced at her reluctantly then turned away to finish his whiskey. He nodded at the bartender's gesture asking if he'd like one more. "The Sheffields went upstate to visit Sara's parents."

"I'm aware."

"They didn't request my presence."

"Also aware of that. I was under the impression you were going home to England."

"Well, I-" Niles paused and looked over at her. "How did you know that?"

CC shrugged again, doing a remarkable impression of indifference. "You mentioned it earlier."

Niles looked at her for a moment longer and then, thankfully, decided to drop it. "Anyhow, I...well." He sighed. "I couldn't afford a plane ticket home."

CC bit back the insult that flew to the tip of her tongue, remembering the truce. A small part of her felt a pang of sympathy for the butler. After all, she handled Maxwell's finances. She knew the paltry sum that he earned. It wasn't necessarily surprising that he couldn't afford a trans-Atlantic flight.

Silence fell between them as the bartender refilled both of their drinks.

"I'm sorry, Niles," CC said. The sentence felt awkward in her mouth, however genuine the sentiment behind it was.

"Oh well," Niles said, holding up his glass. "Here's to semi-tolerable company on a holy night."

"Hey! The truce!" CC exclaimed.

"Old habits, Babcock," Niles replied. "Here's to a bitter Christmas," he amended, clinking his glass against hers and taking a sip.

It wasn't until later in the evening when CC realized that Niles had successfully distracted her from her original question that she understood its answer: he knew she was going to be there.

 **2: 1986**

They no longer met in a bar on Christmas Eve. The previous year, when Niles had shown up at her penthouse door with a bottle of whiskey and several VHS tapes of Christmas movies, CC had bit back a smile and stepped aside to let him in.

This year, CC glanced over at the ornamental clock over her fireplace. She wondered if he'd finally decided to give up their strange tradition and didn't know how to feel about it when someone knocked on her door. She arranged her face in a cool mask and opened the door.

"Evening, Babcock," Niles greeted, stepping past her and bringing an aroma of Chinese food with him.

"Chinese this year?" CC asked. He ignored the question and produced a stack of VHS tapes from a plastic bag. CC glanced at them curiously then made a face. "These are the same corny movies from last year."

"Nothing else seemed fitting for our Bitter Christmas," Niles explained.

CC kept her scrunched face until Niles produced a bottle of whiskey. "Much better," she said, plucking the bottle from his hand and ambling over to her couch.

Hours later, empty Chinese cartons littered her glass coffee table and the third movie played on the screen. CC largely ignored it, now prone on her overstuffed white couch. She tugged her faux-fur blanket up to her shoulders and yawned widely.

Niles leaned against the cushions on the other end of the couch, tossing popcorn in his mouth. On screen, the grumpy villain discovered the path to redemption and bright music swelled.

"Boo!" Niles called out, tossing popcorn at the television. "Bad people don't change. Just look at you, Babs."

"Shuddup, Niles," CC mumbled, her face partially obscured by the blanket. She continued muttering to him but he couldn't understand her. In the dim, flickering light of the living room, Niles glanced over at what he could see of CC's face and smiled reluctantly.

He stood carefully and collected the detritus of their evening, disposing of the trash and putting the tapes back in their sleeves. He kept the television on to see and squatted down to collect CC in his arms. She groaned in protest and shifted closer to his chest, bringing the top of her head against the bottom of his jaw.

Niles turned his head slightly, resting his lips against her hair. But he wouldn't let himself kiss her head. Not yet.

He stepped into her room and placed her on top of her bed, rearranging the blanket so she wouldn't feel too cold. CC rolled onto her side, curling up and mumbling something else he couldn't decipher.

Niles looked at his watch and then took one last look at her. "Merry Christmas, Miss Babcock."

 **3: 1988**

Niles and CC sat on her couch, glasses of whiskey untouched on the coffee table in front of them. The pizza sat congealed in its own grease. Something was on the television, but Niles and CC were never able later to recall what it was.

Sara had died two months previously. Maxwell had packed up the children and flew to England a week ago, desperate to escape his grief. Niles had briefly wondered why he wasn't with them but he understood. As much as a person can understand a world that would take a mother away from her three young children.

Jokes about their Bitter Christmas went unspoken. Their sad isolation of years past paled in comparison to the screaming chasm of emptiness that replaced Sara in both of their lives. There was nothing to say. There was too much to feel.

But they weren't alone. That thought occurred to them at the same time, a strange sort of synchronicity shared by two people in their grief. Perhaps this was why their hands found each other at the same time, resting on the couch cushion that separated them.

They weren't alone. Not tonight. Not the next morning when they awoke in her bed fully clothed, hands still clasped.

They weren't alone. And that was something.

 **4: 1993**

CC entered her penthouse and tore off her scarf, irritated at the implosion of her plans. The nanny managed to bungle up everything, though CC supposed she couldn't blame her for the cancelled flight to DC. But it was easier and more gratifying to blame the nasal megaphone from Queens.

But now she had to face a Christmas Eve alone, something she hadn't needed to experience for nine years. She'd briefly considered calling Niles, but CC wasn't foolish. Fran's arrival at the house had changed things for everyone and CC was not excluded from this.

Her antagonistic relationship with Niles remained the same, but his friendship with the nanny by default meant that he didn't pay as much attention to CC as he used to.

Which was fine, CC thought to herself furiously as she poured a generous whiskey for herself. She didn't _care_ that the domestics were friends. She didn't care if Niles seemed to purposely pick on her even more when Nanny Fine was in the room. She didn't care if Niles had a crush on the nanny. Seems every British man did.

"You're being ridiculous," she said to herself, taking a bracing gulp of her drink and hissing as it burned her throat. She was just sentimental. Damn holidays.

She grabbed the remote and turned on the television, flicking through the channels absentmindedly while she finished her drink. She'd just drained the last of it when a knock sounded at her door.

With a frown, she stood and walked over to the front door, opening it to reveal the butler with a stack of movies and cartons of Thai food.

"Happy Christmas Eve," Niles greeted. He glanced at the empty glass in her hand. "You started without me?" Before she could answer, Niles dropped the movies on her coffee table and snapped his fingers. "Things you say to your date!"

CC rolled her eyes. "I didn't think you'd show."

Niles sidestepped her to reach the wetbar and pour himself a whiskey. He swiveled around and refilled CC's. He looked at her and she wondered what the look in his eyes meant. "Come on, Babcock. We've got a tradition here. Whatever else might change."

CC couldn't think of a response to that so she took another gulp of her drink. It didn't burn this time.

"Movie time," Niles said, sliding the tape into the VCR and settling back on her couch.

"Make yourself at home," CC muttered, though she didn't feel the irritation her words suggested. She settled back against the couch cushions and let him set up the food.

"Sorry about your cancelled trip," Niles said, draining his whiskey and refilling it immediately.

"I'm not," CC admitted, holding out her glass for him to fill. He glanced at her questioningly. "Because I would have had to bust my ass in DC so that Maxwell wouldn't ruin everything."

"That bitter Christmas thought deserves a cheers," Niles told her, tapping his glass against hers.

"Your turn," CC said before biting into a spring roll.

Niles thought for a moment, wordlessly accepting the proffered plate of chicken pad siu. "I'm bitter that Miss Fine's arrival meant a smaller Christmas bonus than last year."

CC chuckled, amused at the thought but mollified at his comment, which she knew he made for her benefit. Being honest, Niles didn't turn his back on any amount of money, and Maxwell's bonus this year was still quite generous. But she recognized what he was doing all the same.

Perhaps this was why, hours and many whiskeys later, when Niles fell asleep on her couch, CC resisted the urge to draw obscenities on his face in a black Sharpie. Instead, she pulled the blanket up over his torso and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"Merry Christmas, Niles," CC told him quietly.

 **5: 1997**

For the first time in thirteen years, Niles and CC spent Christmas Eve in a place other than her penthouse.

Truth be told, she hadn't even known it was Christmas Eve until her morning nurse informed her. How far gone must she be to not even know it was Christmas Eve?

CC wondered if he'd show up. Perhaps this was too bitter even for their bitter Christmas. Things had changed so much, so recently, between them that she'd be surprised if he showed up. That thought depressed her even more than the dark thoughts that swirled through her head so often lately.

But then the door to her hospital room opened, in walked Niles, and CC remembered that he still managed to find ways to surprise her.

"They wouldn't let me bring in food or alcohol," Niles told her. "And you don't have a VCR in here."

With a pang, CC remembered last year's Christmas Eve. They'd grown so close that even at her most stubborn, CC couldn't deny that they were downright flirty. Somehow, mistletoe had appeared and the stoic butler had blushed when CC had leaned in.

Now, Niles stood at the foot of her bed, his balled hand resting next to the foot restraints that were still there just in case.

"Oh" was all she could think to say.

"But I snuck this in!" Niles exclaimed, the smile on his face a little too forced. He bent over and unearthed a short, shriveled miniature pine. It looked half-dead. "Isn't this the most bitter Christmas tree you've ever seen?" Before CC could reply, Niles grabbed a plastic bag with his other hand. "But wait. There's more."

Niles took the next two minutes to toss some tinsel and string from fairy lights around the tree's brittle branches. Then he stepped over to CC's bedside tray table and plugged the tree in.

"Voila!" Now his smile was genuine and his eyes twinkled in their usual manner.

CC couldn't help it. She laughed. It was the first time she'd done so since getting committed to the psychiatric hospital. When a few tears slipped down her cheeks, Niles had the good grace to ignore them, just as she ignored the ones shining in his.

"That's the most hideous thing I've ever seen," CC said, discreetly wiping away her tears.

"Have you chanced a look in the mirror lately?" Niles returned, but there was no malice in his voice. He rested his hand on top of hers, and CC shifted her hand to hold his lightly. He strengthened his grip in response.

"Merry Christmas," they told each other in unison.

 **1: 1999**

"Niles!" CC called out, her voice echoing around the large, airy space of their California living room.

"What?"

"Can you get my drink?"

"You know, you could get it yourself," Niles said, entering the living room with his hands full of food. He looked pointedly at the large bottle of water on the coffee table.

"I think you'll find I can't," CC muttered. She shifted her hips forward slightly, the weight of her pregnant belly hindering her movements considerably. As her hips reached the edge of the couch cushion, CC pushed her torso forward with her hands. The movement forced her legs to open wider than was typically considered ladylike. Then CC groaned. "And now I have to pee."

"The miracle of pregnancy," Niles remarked. "Come here, love." He offered her his forearm, which she gripped with both hands, and with his free hand, he supported her lower back as he helped her to stand up.

"Thanks, baby," CC sighed as she left the room in what could only be described as a waddle.

Niles had never found her more beautiful.

By the time she returned to the living room, Niles had arranged all of the food on the coffee table and set up the first movie in the VCR.

She slowly sat down next to him and pat his leg. "Ok, I'm ready."

"You go first."

"I'm bitter about this baby pressing down on my diaphragm and making me feel like I constantly can't breathe," CC declared, pausing a few times to take a breath.

"Valid. On a related note, I'm bitter that the baby pressing on your diaphragm makes it sound like I'm sleeping next to Darth Vader," Niles replied.

"That's a good one. I'm bitter that finally giving in to your marriage proposals means that I am now intimately acquainted with your morning breath."

"Oh, that's where we're taking it? I'm bitter that our marriage vows didn't include an exit clause in the event that the width of your ankles equaled the circumference of your thighs." He disproved his alleged disgust by tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I'd be more offended if it weren't true," CC admitted, running her hand across the impressive bump of her belly.

"One more month," Niles said quietly, placing his hand on her belly too. Their daughter obliged by rolling over and kicking right near Niles's hand.

Niles and CC sat on the couch, both staring at her belly and humbled into silence by how extraordinarily lucky both felt. The Christmas movies and food were momentarily forgotten.

"Merry Christmas, Niles," CC told her husband, bringing her hand up meet his.

"Merry Christmas, CC," Niles replied, pressing a sweet kiss to her temple.


End file.
